I'm a British national. My grandmother just passed. My wife is Chinese. In general it's a major pain to get my wife a visa to visit the UK, we have never been before.
Is there any way to get an emergency visa to attend the funeral?
What sort of documents would we need?
The short answer is 'no', there are some provisions in UK law that cover emergency cases but attending a funeral is not covered. There are no short cuts. Even if the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks them to facilitate an application, it still goes through the whole rigmarole.
For reference purposes, your case is governed by Paragraph 41 of the Immigration Rules.
On the bright side, your wife may qualify for a so-called 'super priority service' which promises a 24 hour turn-around if the application is straight-forward.
There is also a 'priority service' which promises a 3 to 5 day turn-around.
Both of these services require that she complete the application and provide all the necessary evidence. In the event that the ECO decides the application is not straight-forward, it will go into the normal queue (with no refund for the extra priority fee).
At the moment, the UKVI site is being merged into the GOV.UK site and lots of stuff is missing, so if you cannot find out what evidence is called for or if you have questions about whether your wife's application will be 'straight-forward', you should arrange a telephone consultation with a solicitor or regulated immigration adviser in the UK. Those start at 50 pounds and up.
when my father in law passed away I was granted visit visa for 6 months within 7 days and I enclosed the death certificate and a request letter from (I forgot where did my husband got it from).. that letter got an official stamp and statement that I must attend the funeral as it was his last will. Before that I always got refused by the UK 😳
